It's Los Angeles, the year is 1984 and the city is hosting the olympic games, but outside of the many media spot lights constantly being shone upon LA county, residents and key members of the west coast electro movement, Andre Manuel (The Unknown DJ) and Louis (Three D) King, are forming Technohop records. Launch pad for artists such as Ice T, and a label that would blur the lines between old school west coast hip hop, early techno and house. It all resulted in me having lots of cool tracks and lots of stock photos of people in awesome looking running gear to choose from for the post. Here is a selection from 1987's 'Best Of Technohop' plus some bonuses:

(The technohop copyright holders asked us to take these mp3 links down. They are now selling their re-releases through juno.co.uk)

wow I thought I was one of the few that knew about the x man 12's. bass boogie at its best. NICE to see it posted. I LOVE this site. Its crazy to see I am not the only one who loves this stuff and digs for it. I live in denver now and they dont know anything about any of it. dollar bin all day. THE ONLY THING I LOVE ABOUT DENVER LOL

One of my all time favourite Beat Electric posts (and there has been some stiff competition!)...As well as Technohop, maybe Technobeat would be equally appropriate as many of the tracks remind me of the Belgian New Beat sound circa 87/88.

While the early electro/rap/hiphop scene was well documented here in England via the legendary Street Sounds & Electro compilation mixes, I think this second wave from 85-87 just before Detroit techno solidified into a recognisable genre is far less documented which is astonishing as nearly every micro-genre from the 80s has had its retrospective compilation at some point this decade....maybe someone needs to tell Soul Jazz about Technopop!

While I am thankful to the fans who remember and still appreciate Techno Hop Records, I would sincerely appreciate you not giving away my copyrighted material. Can you see how this is just wrong? I hope so. I already have enough folks pressing my stuff illegally in other countries without you offering my work for free on your blog. I sell the songs for .90 to 1.25 on junodownloads.Peace and BlessingsUDJtechnohoprecords.com